Monday Morning
by Bryn Gwyrdd
Summary: Tag for "In Which Lee tries to think about baseball". Will make little sense if you haven't read that one. Thanks to the friend who asked "And what happened at work the next day?"


Disclaimer: I do not own of these characters; they are the property of Shoot the Moon Enterprises and Warner Bros. Television. I acknowledge gratefully the hard work of the creators of the series who brought to life characters we like so much we can't let them go.

 **Monday Morning – The tag for "In which Lee tries to think about baseball"**

Lee chuckled to himself as he let himself into the Q Bureau Monday morning. Mrs. Marston had looked positively shocked to see him strolling in so early. He'd arrived at work at this hour before but usually looking a little the worse for wear. It hadn't been all that many weeks since he had arrived at work, shirt torn, face covered in lipstick, from an early morning meet gone horribly wrong. He laughed out loud then, remembering Amanda standing in the foyer giving him hell for forgetting to pick her up for work, eyes sparking with annoyance as she described how much worse her day was already going than his. What had she said? "My tiny boys will have to sell their tiny goldfish"? He'd shocked Mrs. Marston that morning too, suddenly blurting out that offer to co-sign for Amanda's loan.

 _Amanda_. Little did Mrs. Marston realize it was Amanda that was the reason he was here this early in the morning. He had slept like the dead the night before and had woken up early with a smile on his face that had everything to do with the amazing 24 hours he had spent with his partner. Images of Amanda in that dress, in his apartment, in his bed, in his shower flashed through his mind and he found himself running a finger under the shirt collar that suddenly seemed tighter.

A voice from the hallway made him look up. Billy was standing in the open door, grinning at him. "Checking for bruises, Scarecrow?"

Lee looked up flustered, remembering the phone call he'd had with his boss the day before. He'd accidentally let it slip that Amanda was in his apartment and only quick thinking on her part had made Billy think otherwise. Unbidden, an image of Amanda wearing nothing but his robe, doubled over with laughter in the middle of his kitchen, sprang to his mind and he could feel himself get warm.

He looked at the smiling face of his boss and tried to pass it off as embarrassment. "Uh, yeah, I think I managed to escape without any marks this time."

"Well I'd worry about next time, but I wouldn't say you have great odds of getting that girl to see you again. She sounded pretty upset from what I could hear" Billy was openly laughing now. "Did you manage to salvage any of the rest of your weekend?"

"It wasn't too bad. Ended up walking around Rock Creek Park most of the afternoon". He smiled to himself, thinking about how that walk in the park had been spent with Amanda.

"Well, let that be a lesson to you – maybe you should be looking for someone a little less, uh, French. Anyway, I didn't come up here to discuss your weekend, I'm still looking for that file I called you about yesterday. I never did get hold of Amanda yesterday to see if she could lay her hands on it."

With some difficulty, Lee managed to control his expression as the mental image of who had got hold of Amanda that weekend and where exactly she been laying her hands flitted through his brain.

"Let me get the vault open and see what I can find."

He pulled himself out of his chair, and crossed the room, pausing to spin the combination on the vault door. Stepping inside, he began pulling open drawers. "It was Hauptmann, right? Let me see if I can figure out Amanda's filing system."

His pulse quickened slightly as he heard the telltale sound of female footsteps coming down the hall and enter the office. "Amanda? Where should I be looking for the Hauptmann file?" he called out, only to be answered by the annoyed tones of Francine.

"It's not Amanda, it's me. I was looking for..." and then her voice trailed off.

Lee stuck his head back out of the vault, to find Francine staring doubtfully at their boss who was now leaning against Lee's desk, shaking with uncontrolled laughter. Francine turned to him, bemused. "I don't know what it was I said, but it made him do that," she said gesturing towards Billy.

Billy managed to lift his head just long enough to gasp out "Not Amanda! Again!" between paroxysms.

Francine looked from Lee to Billy and back to Lee. "Do you have any idea what he's talking about?

By now, Lee was having a hard time not laughing himself in the face of Billy's uncontrollable giggling. "That's need to know, Francine."

Francine raised one eyebrow at him before deciding she was probably never going to find out what was going on. "Well, I need to know if Amanda still has the transcripts from Fred's surveillance on Thursday"

"They're in the vault" said Amanda's voice from the doorway. She'd stopped there to survey the crowded office, Francine looking annoyed, Billy now struggling to get himself under control and Lee red-faced in the door to the vault. Dropping her purse on her desk, she walked to the vault and reached past Lee to pick up the set of tapes and paperwork sitting on top of the closest cabinet. She paused for a moment to look at Lee questioningly while her back was to the rest of the room but all he could manage was to press his lips together and shake his head slightly.

She turned back to Francine to hand her the stack of tapes and then crossed to her desk as Francine flounced back out of the office. "Good morning sir," she addressed Billy who had by now managed to get control of himself. "Are you still looking for that file? I'm sorry I didn't get your message until late last night. Basketball camp in Roanoke, you know."

'Nice touch" thought Lee to himself. It was true the boys had been away at Roanoke – she just hadn't been with them.

"That's fine Amanda, but yes I am still looking for it. Lee doesn't seem to be having much luck."

"That's because it's in the pending stuff in the top drawer" Lee stepped out of the vault as she stepped back in, but not before she had managed to pause, just out of sight of Billy and grab his butt on the way by. She pulled a thick manila folder out of the cabinet drawer and stepped back into the vault doorway to hand it to Billy. "There you are, sir. I hope you didn't lose too much of your weekend with Fred." She turned to Lee, a small smile on her lips and that was the moment Lee began to fully appreciate the evil genius who was his partner. "How was your weekend, Lee? How was your date with whatsername? Marie-Antoinette? Did she make you eat cake?" He managed to contain his laughter but Billy didn't. The belly laugh that burst out of him made both of them start laughing too.

"I think he may have eaten more crow than cake, Amanda" Billy managed to bark out as he left the office at high speed.

Lee couldn't help himself, calling out "Au revoir Billy!" and was rewarded with the sound of a fresh explosion of laughter. Barely had the door closed behind him, then Lee found himself being dragged backwards into the vault and into Amanda's arms.

"Good morning Mr. Stetson. I missed you this morning". She looked up at him with sparkling eyes and a smile of pure mischief, running her thumbs over the dimples she loved so much.

"Good morning Marie. Did I hear you just mention something about cake?" Lee swooped in to kiss the pulse point on her neck that he could see fluttering in her warm skin.

"No cake this morning, but I'm sure we could find some dessert in here before anyone comes back."

His answering laugh was cut off as her lips took his.


End file.
